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You know that the Bond movies are all about the Bond movies when they start building stories around actors playing secondary characters. This one is a send off for Judi Dench, who took over the role of M with Goldeneye. M, of course, is James Bond's boss. M is the person who sends Bond off on all his adventures. M is not 007. Yet here she is, the target of her own government (who think maybe she's too antiquated for her job) and a maniac with a personal grudge. Add to that a plot that sees Bond (Daniel Craig) returning to his family home (a dark topic he refuses to discuss) and the (re)discovery of Q and Miss Moneypenny, and what you get is not so much a Bond movie as a Bond family soap opera. Javier Bardem plays the madman, Silva, and his performance is creepy enough, but the character's a chump. Director Mendes is convinced he is one of the great Bond villains. A great Bond villain, however, doesn't whine about doing his job or others doing theirs, and he sure as hell isn't consumed by mommy issues. Silva is supposed to be a cyberterrorist, but we must take that on faith. All we know for sure is that he's a spoiled brat who got his butt spanked long ago and isn't ever going to forget it. Some villain. The movie is best, by far, in its first half, when Bond, shot and presumed dead during the opening, later learns that MI6 has been destroyed and battles back into shape to take on the psycho responsible for that. One fight scene is imaginatively shot in a high rise office building in Shanghai against the backdrop of one of those giant Asian electronic advertising screens. Bond's big break comes when he speaks to Sévérine (Bérénice Marlohe), the maniac's mistress. It may be the best scene in the film: dark, quiet, and humming with tension. But the second half is a drag, one that plays up the film's confusion over point of view. Is the story about Bond, M, or Silva? You get to take your pick. Which isn't the way a "Bond movie" should work.
You know that the Bond movies are all about the Bond movies when they start building stories around actors playing secondary characters. This one is a send off for Judi Dench, who took over the role of M with Goldeneye. M, of course, is James Bond's boss. M is the person who sends Bond off on all his adventures. M is not 007. Yet here she is, the target of her own government (who think maybe she's too antiquated for her job) and a maniac with a personal grudge. Add to that a plot that sees Bond (Daniel Craig) returning to his family home (a dark topic he refuses to discuss) and the (re)discovery of Q and Miss Moneypenny, and what you get is not so much a Bond movie as a Bond family soap opera. Javier Bardem plays the madman, Silva, and his performance is creepy enough, but the character's a chump. Director Mendes is convinced he is one of the great Bond villains. A great Bond villain, however, doesn't whine about doing his job or others doing theirs, and he sure as hell isn't consumed by mommy issues. Silva is supposed to be a cyberterrorist, but we must take that on faith. All we know for sure is that he's a spoiled brat who got his butt spanked long ago and isn't ever going to forget it. Some villain. The movie is best, by far, in its first half, when Bond, shot and presumed dead during the opening, later learns that MI6 has been destroyed and battles back into shape to take on the psycho responsible for that. One fight scene is imaginatively shot in a high rise office building in Shanghai against the backdrop of one of those giant Asian electronic advertising screens. Bond's big break comes when he speaks to Sévérine (Bérénice Marlohe), the maniac's mistress. It may be the best scene in the film: dark, quiet, and humming with tension. But the second half is a drag, one that plays up the film's confusion over point of view. Is the story about Bond, M, or Silva? You get to take your pick. Which isn't the way a "Bond movie" should work.